MovieChat Forums > Kapringen (2012) Discussion > Loved it, but there's one annoying flaw

Loved it, but there's one annoying flaw

posted 12 years ago by matisoff
12 replies | jump to latest

There was one obvious mistake that I thought that CEO made in the film. Why did he not hire a Somalian translator? It would have been extremely valuable during the negotation phone calls, and even while listening to the tapes of the negotiations after-hours. I'm sure there would have been some interesting information, and found it to be an uncharacteriscally bad move by the CEO.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the film. Extremely tense - my theater was silent the entire way through!

[–] TheLionKingKong 12 years ago

The pirates already had an English translator and the CEO spoke English. I don't think a Somalian interpreter was necessary.

[–] wierpmesch 12 years ago

Apart from that, it may have been difficult or even impossible to find one on short notice.

[–] CrispyCrunchy 12 years ago

Good point- it definitely would have helped to remove some of the ambiguity about what exactly was going on in the room while Peter was on the phone to Omar. The more information he would have had the better. This didn't occur to me at the time I was watching the film, but would have made a lot of sense in a real situation.

Of course they would have been able to get a somali translator- you really think that a guy who was willing to pay US$3.3 million (and probably a lot more) for the hostages wouldn't have been able to find a translator within four months?

[–] wierpmesch 11 years ago

CrispyCrunchy: "Of course they would have been able to get a somali translator- you really think that a guy who was willing to pay US$3.3 million (and probably a lot more) for the hostages wouldn't have been able to find a translator within four months?"

It's not a question of money. For many of the world's languages, esp outside Europe/America, there simply aren't any translators. I doubt they could have found one for Somalian. It's not as if you can pick one up on every street corner.

[–] PedroZZZ 11 years ago

It's not a question of money. For many of the world's languages, esp outside Europe/America, there simply aren't any translators. I doubt they could have found one for Somalian. It's not as if you can pick one up on every street corner.

I would agree with this quote if we were talking about some rare indigenous language, but we are talking about Somali language. There are plenty of translators. Especially in Nordic countries there are huge numbers of Somalian refugees who are fluent in Somali, Danish and/or English. It would take less than a day to find one. Furthermore it would not have to be a professional translator, anyone who is fluent in the two would suffice.

However I don't think is a big flaw. First of all almost none of the discussion or even background noises in the calls were in Somali. Secondly maybe they had a translator who they called afterwards to check the recordings, where there actually was some Somali language. You would not have one translator on standby in the office all the time (the calls were very infrequent).

[–] drumgod101 12 years ago

I never thought of it in this sense. I noticed that the filmmakers chose not to translate the Somali. I thought that it was a conscious choice. We still get the point that the Somalians are trying to make without subtitles.
Undoubtedly in real life though, such negotiations would include a Somali translator. That is a weird flaw.
Read my review at: http://imdb.com/title/tt2216240/reviews-15

[–] timlin-4 11 years ago

You'd think the "expert" they hire would be fluent. Also shouldn't the intelligence agency have sent someone?

[–] badtothebono 11 years ago

You never know what you might hear in the background.

[–] rudden 11 years ago

I think it was a writer's decision. The untranslated Somali dialogue (both onscreen and overheard on the conference calls) added to sense of confusion and dislocation that the protagonists were experiencing.

[–] andre-rodenburg 11 years ago

IMHO it's not a flaw. If the shipping company had hired a Somali speaking interpreter from outside, they would have to completely trust this person as they could not check what he's saying. By negotiating in English through Omar, they know what is being said.

[–] ruzhyo2000-1 11 years ago

The whole point of the CEO being in charge of the negotiations was that he wanted the negotiation to be handled in-house. It was implied that they did not want the word to get out because it would hurt their business. This is why the board pressured him into completing the negotiations quickly and why he had that meeting with his employees stressing the importance of secrecy and not talking anonymously to the press. Hiring a Somalian translator would be a pretty significant security leak and would have undermined his own decision to be in charge of negotiations, a decision that was made in part because of the importance of this secrecy.

Additionally, it was established pretty early on that the pirates had a man who spoke English and wanted to conduct all negotiations in English. So just from a practical standpoint, having a scene where they take the huge risk of hiring a Somalian interpreter, only to have another scene where they realized that they did not need him would have been wasteful and detracted somewhat from the main purpose of these early negotiation scenes.